Petshark: Talking Stick

Entries with the tag: thomas greiss

Some ex-Worcester Shuttle frequent flyers have been on the move lately, and for some reason this is as interesting to me as pre-game thoughts about the Sharks in Anaheim. I have only one thought about tonight's game: the Sharks need to avenge that near loss they suffered at home on the 29th. I just hope it isn't with a near win like the Ducks got. Something on the order of a regulation win would be better.

Reports say Greiss will start, and Boyle missed the morning skate again due to lingering flu symptoms:

@PollakOnSharks: McLellan says Boyle missed practice because of flu symptoms, but should play. Note: #SJSharks coach said same when teams met 1/29. Hmm.

@PollakOnSharks: To be precise (and fair), #SJSharks McLellan said of Boyle that he "antcipates him playing."

Precise and fair it is. I did wonder if playing while sick or after just being sick would be a bad idea. I'll dwell on how perfectly rational that explanation is instead of getting all worked up about it. Right.

Over the past few days, I discovered an impatience I haven't felt for a while, the "hold on, no games today? Or tomorrow? Or... I'm supposed to wait how long for a game?" feeling. It was irritating, but not bad. It reminded me of a normal hockey season. It feels like being all adapted to the new hockey universe.

This impatience drove me to start hunting for European and KHL games online. This is not only difficult because feeds tend to move around, but also because an audio feed will not do. I don't speak most of the languages these games are broadcast in. I did manage to dig up a Dinamo Minsk game going on yesterday morning. A video feed was not available to me (which only took me about an hour to figure out) but following the scoreboard was better than nothing. So that was fun, except that Minsk blew a lead and fell 6-3. At least Pavelski got a goal.

There are several Sharks abroad. I found the following information online, but I can't be sure how complete it is. I started with Eurohockey.com because they have an easy search that found most of the Sharks quickly. From there I sort of wandered:

If you’ve been following Twitter news about Alex Stalock, you might wonder why the Sharks would fly Sexsmith all the way out here and send Nitty back to Worcester instead of just bringing Stalock over from Stockton. Sure, Sexsmith is higher in the depth chart but all that to and fro air travel is hardly a sound ecological strategy. Luckily, I stumbled on an answering machine tape out in Stockton that recorded this recent phone call:

There’s dragons and there’s Dragons. That Sharks @ Oilers game wasn’t what I had in mind to start the Year of the Dragon. There were some good things, like Logan Couture earned his 100th NHL point. The Sharks did control much of the game. They just couldn’t score accordingly, so they lost.

Luck and legend distinguish the Dragon from the other symbols in the Chinese and Mongolian zodiac. It is said to be the very luckiest birth year, the sign of the emperor. Unlike the other symbols, a dragon is not the sort of critter most of us will see in our lifetimes. Since there are twelve signs in this system, that is a little surprising. The year starts today and ends around this time in 2013.

As someone who grew up in San Francisco, I guess I should say something about the Niners. They lost. Bummer for Niners fans. I wasn’t all that anxious for them to win because I feel that trips to championship finals disperse geographically in such a way that if the Niners had gone on, this would have been bad news for the Sharks. Look what happened with the Giants- the other Giants I mean. Condolences to Niners fans, may the loss not be in vain.

The Sharks begin the year in Edmonton. I don’t know if any of them attended a parade, but a big spectacle like an NHL game should do. Wow… that would be cool, if someone brought a paper and silk dragon to the game and sent it around the stands… I know, that probably won’t happen.

After sleeping on it and reading Sharks game recaps, I realized that there were a lot of good things about last night’s game against the Ducks. Things like allowing no shots on goal during penalty kills. Things like out shooting and out scoring the other guys, blocking a lot of shots. Burns coming back after blocking a shot with his hand, and, apparently, Demers feeling okay. These are all very good as karmic signs go, no matter who the other guys are.

Like the Blue Jackets. They’re sharing a nest at the bottom of the standings with the Ducks. Unlike the Ducks, they haven’t had a single good spell this season. They started out losing and injured, they are still losing. Maybe I’m being generous when I say the Ducks had a good spell. They won four in a row at the start of the season and since then have only won six more. The Blue Jackets, however,only won their first game after losing their first eight. It was a race to get a win in before November.

Douglas Murray and Jim Vandermeer are still out. It goes without saying, but I don’t want to forget about him: Martin Havlat is out too, as he will be for a long while. According to Kevin Kurz, the lines looked unchanged from the last game at the Sharks’ morning skate.

During a broadcast of a Worcester Sharks game the other day, Ben Guite mentioned goalie drills. He wasn’t very specific, but he said that shooting drills were more fun than goalie drills, if you’re not a goalie, which he isn’t. I don’t remember if he used those terms, but this answered a question I had some time ago about goalies at team practice. I wondered if goalies get enough or the right kind of practice when they practice with the team. The answer seems to be: not really.

Even when the goalie is engaged in the drills, seeing a lot of shots, if those shots are practice for the shooters, they will probably be varied, the kind of shot that particular skater needs to practice. The goalie will get work, he will get some practice, but it’s not comprehensive.

-Last night-
To go to sleep angry is something you shouldn’t do. So I was glad that CSN showed the new Shark Byte right after that appalling game in LA. It was chock full of fun and cute things and happy cheerful banter. Something other than what was probably going on in the Sharks dressing room and on the plane home tonight. I hope, but that’s because I’m still a little mad. Maybe I should watch it again. The Shark Byte, not the game. That wallaroo was adorable.

I thought the Sharks would give a few strong performances here, since they were facing teams they should take seriously. The Canucks game was depressing but McLellan said it was a good effort. He’s the expert, so I’ll just believe him. But this game in LA was painful to watch. The team could not have been more disjointed if they had itching powder in their gloves and helmets. They were so very much out of sync, it was hard to tell who wasn’t making hasty wrong decisions and bizarre choices.

Todd McLellan wanted a good start against the Predators, a good first period from the Sharks. He got one. I guess he phrased his wish incorrectly because the genie forgot to include a good finish with that good start. Apparently McLellan isn’t as upset about Saturday’s loss as he was about Thursday’s win:

“... I thought we had a much better game, we just didn’t win. There was about a 10-minute lull in the third period where we weren’t our best. But, sometimes we don’t give enough credit to the other team… They were better for that 10 and 12 minutes, and we didn’t stop them.

“... The whole was better than it was two nights earlier.” -Shark Talk

When the game ended, I felt the same way, and wasn’t sure why. Maybe I was still drunk from the Flyers win earlier. Or maybe it’s the surgeon’s logic: the operation was a success, but the patient died.

I was late to the Penguins @ Sharks game and had to play DVR catch-up. I missed most of the first period. Apparently so did the Sharks. I’m flattered, really, that they waited for me, but in the larger scheme of things it might have been better for them to go ahead and start without me.

2-0 Penguins.

I guess if you have to have a bad period it is more satisfying for the audience if it is the first period instead of the last. Still, a little less suspense would go a long way with me. I feel slightly battered by that game.

Greiss was heroic. He seemed to do everything right. Oh, sure, he wandered into traffic a couple of times behind the net but hey, that goes hand in hand with all that jumping out to make aggressive stops. He needs a loose rein. Besides, that gave his team a chance to make it up to him, make up for that hideous spectacle that was most of the game.

They weren’t in Hawaii, but they were visiting Islanders, and now the Sharks are 5-0 on this trip. Their performance last night was lackluster. They won anyway, them’s the breaks, no point asking why.

@PollakOnSharks: Couture on #SJSharks 3-2 OT win: “I didn’t think we were very good, but good teams find a way to win games when they’re not at their best.”

A few things did have to work. Like Pickles. While the rest of the team seemed fairly convinced that they were tired, Vlasic doesn’t believe in tired. Probably he does believe in it, he just doesn’t believe he is old enough to suffer from it. We saw a clever and energetic performance from him. Vlasic is on a tear, isn’t he?

It is early still to say whether or not the Sharks’ plans for the 2011-12 season are working, but there is some data available.

First part of the plan was to get Dan Boyle’s minutes down. It does look like his TOI is creeping down. At least from the first game (27:28) to the last (22:49) there’s a reduction, with a spike of in the middle there. Boyle’s time on the penalty kill isn’t dropping off as much as some would like but overall others are balancing out his minutes. The drop is not drastic but it is there, probably because Vlasic and Burns are looking better.

I tune in a little late and then start writing because if the Sharks lose I hate writing about it, better to start before it happens. I see the lineups flash across the screen.

Wow, I did not see that coming, 7D and no Wingels. Mitchell on the second line I didn’t think about but I can see how that’s an option. Andrew Murray up on the the third line. Well, he has been very steady.

Andrew Murray gets smushed, Clowe takes issue with that. Randy says we would like to get the power play but you also like to see Clowe standing up for his teammate. Hm. I’ll take the power play for 2, Randy. Oh well.

People get hurt in all kinds of situations but it’s more likely when people are confused and scrambling. Last night, the Ducks’ Jason Blake was the unlucky party:

“It was a weird, freak play – the battle in the faceoff and I didn’t really know he fell right away. He was kind of behind me” Burns, continued: ” ...the puck was there and I was trying to kick the puck up and I think he was trying to get the puck. It was just a battle and I didn’t even know he was on the ground.” -David Pollak’s Twitter feed

All seem to agree that it was a freak accident, but one of the things that tends to happen when things are going badly is someone gets hurt.

The Sharks wanted to start the season off fast. That sounds like a good plan, even if the NHL schedule made us hurry up and wait for a week before the next game. I also wish these starts were not against the Yotes and the Ducks. The Ducks should offer some resistance but the current incarnation of the Phoenix Coyotes is hardly rigorous competition for what some are calling the best Sharks team ever, or in a very long time. That’s why a blowout was sort of on the agenda Saturday night, especially after that preseason game I can’t seem to remember.

Everything was going according to plan until the end. I imagine it’s hard to keep playing hard when there’s not much push back. The Sharks won 6-3, but for quite a while the score was lots more lopsided than that. There are several good recaps of the game:

Welcome back NHL hockey. Yesterday’s practice gave me some what ifs to ponder. What if the Sharks had to manage a penalty kill and, for whatever reason, the only forwards on the ice were McGinn & McLaren? What if the team was down two men, and the only forward was Andrew Murray? Apparently, in these situations, the team could make due with White and Vandermeer there too. Something tells me that exercise was more about who was on the power play than the penalty kill but it still made me wonder.

Tomorrow the Sharks play their first game of the season, and there are several things I’m looking forward to, not the least of which is being there to hear the noise.

Tonight’s lineup features Vlasic’s return but no Burns, the second line on top (minus Havlat, plus Ferriero) and a new mix of lower lines: McCarthy-Desjardins-Wingels, Mashinter-Guite-MacIntyre. Oh, and the McGinn-Handzus-Mitchell line which isn’t at all new.

Nemo was back on the ice for practice. Praise the hockey gods. Petrecki is also ready to play, after quietly finishing hip rehab. I wondered where he was disappearing to during scrimmages. He will be with Vlasic, Braun with Vandermeer and White with Demers. I keep seeing White listed as “C White” instead of just “White.” I know we had another White last season but let it go already, Colin is our new White, I think it is safe to just say “White.”

Thanks, Brodie, it was nice to get some attention for the new glass and boards system at HP. I agree that we will see a lot more game and a lot less stanchion. I’m not sure it will provide as much of a home ice advantage as suggested in Brodie’s article.

“They are more lively,” Sharks captain Joe Thornton told me. “It will be a nice home ice advantage, you know we’ll get used to those boards. It’s going to be good for us.” -Sharks Talk